Casting Stones (Stones Duet #1) (46 page)

When she finally stands, she begs me to listen. “Shane, please. I can explain.” She reaches again for my hand. “Come with me.”

“Who are you?”

“Please.”

You lied to me.” I seethe through gritted teeth as my body starts to convulse, the anger running rampantly. “I fucking trusted you.”

Abruptly, I turn away and push my way through the crowd. I feel her small fingers fist the back of my shirt.

“Shane, please.”

When I spin around, I nearly knock her down. With stilettos on, she’s not that much shorter than me.

“What? What is there to say
Jade
?”

“Don’t call me that!”

“Why not?” I growl. “That’s your goddamn name, isn’t it?”

“No! Shane, stop. Please.” Her voice cracks as she screams at me.

I don’t care that the lights have been raised and everyone is around us. I don’t care that Jenna and Simon are now standing there along with Eric, Brandon and a few other people from work. I don’t care that everyone is watching or that the bouncers are on their way to pull me away from her.

“You’re a stripper?
A goddamn stripper
?” I bellow in her face as I yank the red wig off, leaving her blond hair matted against her scalp.

“It’s not what you think. Please, I have to explain.” Black tears race down her face as her body quakes with loud heavy sobs.

My chest heaves hard as my eyes zero in on hers. “Explain?” I shriek. “There’s nothing to explain. You’re a fucking stripper.”

“Shane, I had to. My mother—”

I spit out the word that tastes like poison on my tongue. “Is a whore just like you.”

“No. No. No. Shane, please. I’m begging you!” She wails, reaching for my arm and pulling me hard.

Disgust mars my face as I look at her hand as if it were diseased.

“Get your filthy hands off me.”

With a broken heart and heavy steps, I race out of the bar and into the street. My fist connects with the side of the building and bleeds immediately. Dizziness consumes me. I bend over and throw up. It feels as though my love for her is splattered on the sidewalk, too.

Brandon runs out and stops short of stepping in my vomit.

“No fucking way. You stupid motherfucker! This is perfect! Your girlfriend is the stripper Jade! I thought I recognized that little slut.”

My eyes snap up to find him clutching his stomach and stamping his foot, laughing hysterically.

“Your precious Remy is a whore!”

I see red. Blood red.

Without warning, I ram my shoulder into his chest and tackle him to the hard concrete. My fists pummel his face over and over again until his laughter subsides into gurgled pants and he lies still, bloody, bruised and battered.

Weightlessly, I fly through the air when two police officers haul me off Brandon and pull me away from the massacre.

“Shane!” Remy screams when she finds me. She throws herself into my chest and wraps her arms around my back where my wrists have been secured in metal hand cuffs.

“Shane, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” Empty words float through the air as onlookers watch the commotion. Police sirens blare and flashing lights from an ambulance come to a screeching halt as I’m pulled away by two uniformed officers. Simon and Jenna hold Remy back even though she fights to hold on to me.

In all my life, I’ve never been so humiliated. I’ve never been so broken. I’ve never lost so much.

Remy wails and sobs as she stands naked on the sidewalk. She screams when I’m slammed up against the trunk of the patrol car, my legs kicked wide and my body patted down.

“Stop! Leave him alone!”

I close my eyes to block everything out.

Within minutes, I’m lowered into the back of the patrol car where I bow my head and shut my eyes, wondering if the blood smeared all over me is from my mangled and gored heart.

The memory of fresh blood crashes into the forefront of my mind. More flashing lights and approaching sirens cause me to open my eyes just in time to see two EMTs place Brandon’s body onto a gurney and rush him into the back of the ambulance. I rub my cheek against my shoulder to wipe the liquid I know is beginning to dry.

I battle my emotions as I slam my head back against the headrest for what feels like a million times, wishing the blood I once smeared all over my face had really been mine. Wishing the gaping hole in my brother’s head had been mine. Wishing I had died with my brothers in the desert.

I might as well be dead. The woman I love just killed me.

I choke back a sob and open my eyes to find Remy, my once beautiful angel, now covered with the long, black trench coat that matches the streaks running down her face. It’s the same one she took off seconds before she exposed her body, the body I considered
mine
. It was on display for all to see. My eyes drift to Simon who has his arms wrapped around her, holding her, comforting her.

“I can’t lose you, Shane.” She shakes out of his hold and screams over the sirens. “I love you. I love you.”

The image of her defeated and broken matches how battered and bruised I feel inside because I can’t believe…

I’m in love with a stripper.